A sporting chance
With the world shut down, sports fans and athletes look to sport simulation videogames
With the world shut down, sports fans and athletes look to simulation videogames
The concept of esports is nothing new, but there’s always been a divide between pro gaming and real-life sport. You’d probably get a funny look if you asked Premier League footballers to decide the result of the Championship with a game of FIFA, and rightly so. But in the Covid-19 era, the sporting community has proved surprisingly adaptive. Media channels have been broadcasting certain sport simulation videogames as a substitute for live events, giving fans and athletes a crucial outlet. Some of the bigger players in sports are even starting to think about how the lines between virtual and real sports might be blurring.
Even off-road motorsports are taking to simulations, with the European Truck Trials using gameplay from Nano Games’ Heavy Duty
Challenge to keep fans entertained. But one of the most successful alternatives to real events comes courtesy of Formula 1, which is using Codemasters’ F1 2019 to stage virtual grands prix on race weekends. “China was the first race to be postponed,” explains Codemasters franchise director Paul Jeal, “so we had an idea to do a one-off exhibition race. The pandemic accelerated, so we had to change that concept and think, ‘How can we roll it out quickly enough to fill the seats?’ Now, seeing the drivers do battle in our game is the most amazing but surreal experience.” F1 drivers George Russell, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc have been joined on the virtual grid by game-loving celebrities, with the races bagging huge viewing figures – 3.2m people watched the Bahrain virtual GP across Sky Sports, Twitch and YouTube.
Beyond lockdown, increasing realism could see simulation games play a part in the development of their respective sports, with McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown speculating that drivers could soon be using their gaming rigs for practice instead of multi-million-dollar simulators. Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson, who drives Mercedes’ simulators, is not as convinced. “Certain elements could – and have – been taken from videogames, like graphics or sounds, and be implemented into a full-blown F1 simulator,” he says. “But it’s the level of data coming from the real car that allows a driver to know whether the sim is reproducing the right feel. A few things can be of benefit to the driver, like configuring steering wheel button layout, lights or beep tones or learning a new circuit, but most of the time it’s for the development of the car, not the driver.”
Simulations and esports are nevertheless an increasingly valid way for young hopefuls to gain experience for the real thing, Paul Jeal tells us: “One of the FIA’s mandates is that it costs too much money to do motorsports, so they see sim racing as a platform where teams could cast a wider net to find talent. We’re already seeing that with our esports programme. [Esports stars] Brendon Leigh, Cem Bölükbasi and Enzo Bonito have all raced real-life cars and done well.”
The virtual grands prix have attracted a new, younger audience to F1 – something that could carry on postpandemic. “My dream scenario,” Jeal says, “would be that esports would sit in the F1 calendar as part of the build-up to grand prix weekends, as its own thing.”
And, as a direct result of simulated events replacing sports during lockdown, Nano Games’ Łukasz Plesniarowicz sees a broadening of esports in the future, too. “A game like Heavy Duty Challenge has a potential for live events and online leagues. We’re seeing more people get competitively involved in simulation games – and I’m sure that we will see even more interesting and surprising esports emerging.”
Above all, Davidson believes virtual GPs are a great way for currently grounded drivers to experience that allimportant competitive rush. “There’s a huge amount of competition in virtual racing – arguably more so than in the real thing, because everyone has the same chance with equal equipment. There’s nowhere to hide. I’ve gone to bed grumpy because I was off the pace, other times I’ve punched the air in delight. Although you tell yourself it’s just a game, it still pushes the same buttons.”
Jeal agrees: “The drivers are definitely missing racing, and there’s no way of slowing these guys down or making them non-competitive. They all want to win!”
Sometimes a little too much, it seems: Formula E driver Daniel Abt was recently suspended by Audi after hiring an esports pro to play a virtual race for him, while Indycar’s Simon Pagenaud was forced to apologise to Lando Norris after deliberately running him out of a virtual race. The ease with which it’s possible to cheat may be an impediment to the coexistence – even blending, perhaps – of virtual and real sporting scenes. Still, that such incidents have not been taken lightly is a promising sign for the integrity of this burgeoning scene – and a possible future in which simulated and real sports increasingly interact and develop one another.
Now, seeing the drivers do battle in our game is the most amazing but surreal experience